Attrition is a part every college football program but with receiver Thomas Lucas posting a tweet earlier today that he would not be returning to the UConn football team, he is the ninth scholarship player who signed with the Huskies in 2013 to move on.

The number includes Jordan Fuchs and Chasz Wright, who headed to Milford Academy and were expected to be a part of the program before they changed their minds following the firing of Paul Pasqualoni so it's not completely fair to include them among the defections since they never actually made it to UConn.

Michael Boland, Sha'ki Holines, Cory Jasudowich, Richard Lagow, Lucas, Kivon Taylor and Quinn Thompson would have been seniors or redshirt juniors on the 2016 UConn team had they stuck around. Taking it a step further, there were 44 players on the 2013 UConn roster listed as either true or redshirt freshmen and as of right now and 17 are not expected to be with the team during the upcoming season. It should be noted that some of those departures include walk-ons and there is always a lot of coming and going among the non-scholarship players it also doesn't include players like Lagow and Jasudowich who left before the first game of the 2013 season.

When UConn headed to preseason camp, the feeling was that Noel Thomas, Dhameer Bradley, Brian Lemelle and Thomas Lucas would be among the top options as receiver. Thomas had a team-high 54 catches but the other three combined for a total of nine catches. Thomas had an impressive season but Bradley will be suiting up at Sacred Heart and now Lucas is on the way out as well. Lucas was in a difficult situation as true freshmen Tyraiq Beals, Hergy Mayala and Aaron McLean had moved by him on the pecking order. The UConn coaches were talking up fellow freshmen Frank Battle and Bryan Coney while Lemelle, who had an injury-plagued junior season, could also be in the mix during the 2016 season.

It is going to be interesting to see what the roster looks like when the 2016 season gets going although it should be noted that there is plenty of quality remaining among the 2013 freshmen including potential 2016 starters Foley Fatukasi, Tommy Hopkins, Junior Joseph, Andreas Knappe, Richard Levy, Obi Melifonwu, Mikal Myers, Tommy Myers, Cole Ormsby, Cam Stapleton, Thomas, Brendan Vechery, Justin Wain, Matt Walsh and Jhavon Williams.